Current treatments for lung and respiratory diseases are mainly directed at reducing symptoms of disease, rather than treating the disease itself. However, transplantation of lung progenitor cells may be able to regenerate endogenous lung cells that were previously destroyed by injury or disease.
While stem cell treatment of lung disease is highly desired, isolation of lung progenitor cells from the adult human lung has proved to be a difficult task, despite much effort by the scientific community. One approach to address this issue is to reprogram an autologous cell to an induced pluripotent stem cell, and then induce directed differentiation to lung progenitor cells. This approach also has the advantages of permitting manipulation to the cell prior to administration and preventing rejection of the cells by the subject.